Question

In C, I do:

char* buffer=p->content;       // p is a struct type and content is a char*
printf("buffer:%s\n",buffer);  

My output is this:

@uffer: �@��^��0z

I don’t quite know why I get �@��^��0z, but I suspect is has to do with me incrementing mypointer incorrectly.

My main question is: Why is my “b” being converted to an “@” sign????????

Answer 1

The garbage data you are printing coincidentally contains a line printer control character known as carriage return, which your display device is interpreting as a command to move the cursor to the beginning of the line. Then if a @ character occurs, it overwrites the first character of your output.